Some Dell Mini 9 netbook batteries smaller than advertised?

Some owners of Dell’s Inspiron Mini 9 are discovering their battery has less capacity than advertised, with certain models shipping with a three-cell pack rather than the expected four-cell pack. Labelling on all of the batteries suggest they are 32Wh packs; however battery information software indicates that, fully-charged, the some packs hold at most a 24Wh charge.

The affected battery packs can seemingly be identified by their serial number. Four-cell batteries have a code beginning with CN, and are labelled as being manufactured and assembled in China; three-cell packs, meanwhile, have a code beginning with KR, and are marked as being manufactured in Korea and assembled in China.

Dell are yet to make an official statement regarding the issue. However owners of the netbook are reporting varying responses from Dell’s support service, with some users promised replacement power packs (and in some cases again receiving three-cell batteries) and others being told that no such replacement program exists.